Burning Skies
by Silent Midnight Shadow
Summary: (Set before first movie) After her father's death, Erin Ryder was forced into military training and work soon following her 17th birthday. Now 21, she returns to her hometown of Las Vegas, NV. Contemplating what her next step in life should be and an unexpected challenge crashes down on her, literally. OC/Bumblebee (Inspired by Amelia-St-Claire's, All Beginnings) Rated M to be safe


I watched as the stars glisten and twinkle as I sat on the hood of my car. Even though Las Vegas was only a couple of miles away, once out of the city the sky opened up into a vast void of stars. I sighed as I looked at my cell phone's clock; 9:37. I pulled up my hood and set the phone down on the hood next to me and continued to watch in the silence of the night. Everything was clam, peaceful almost, unlike the life that I had been living for the past 4 years.

Hell, was one way to describe it. I had been recruited into a top secret branch of the military. Although, recruited wasn't really the word. I was happy for the most part my father, Charlie, had told us he was a solider in the Marines, and my mother, Sheryl, was a professor at the college in Las Vegas. After awhile my mother grew tired of my father's work hours and his way of life in general. The constant worry, not knowing if or when he was coming home, and the constant traveling that came with life in the military. My mother divorced my father when I was 5. Somehow, though everything my father was able to maintain custody of me.

I traveled from place to place all over the world with my father after that. Then, one day, the 27th of January, I had just turned 17 only a month before, I opened the door to military police and several soldiers. I instantly knew I would never see my father again. I remember well, the moment they took me to that base that was just outside of Las Vegas, our most recent move had sent us back. Tears were brimming my eyes and they stained my cheeks as they fell.

Everything was a blur after that, I remembered little of what happened after that. Next thing I knew, I was thrown into training with the threat of treason if I left. Linguistics, weapon usage, hand to hand combat and the list goes on. I closed my eyes and sighed, trying to block out the memories.

A noise entered my sensitive ears, the sound of something ripping through the atmosphere caused me to open my eyes. What I saw threw me off the hood my car and sent me running in any direction but there. It was meteor of some sort and it was headed straight towards my car. I didn't make it very far before I heard the crunch of metal and and explosion that sent me flying. I tumbled forward a bit and landed on my knees facing the direction of blast, having no idea how I managed to get that way.

Standing up, I cautiously walked over to where my poor car once sat, a small, shallow, crater now. The ground and the area around the crater was glowing with intense heat as the fire that surrounded what looked like a pod, burned out. Suddenly parts on the pod shifted and twisted. My hear raced as I stood at the edge of the shallow hole. I could feel my dirty strawberry blonde hair becoming tangled as the air shifted and blew dust-up into the air as the object opened up. My bright, light blue eyes watched as a being unfolded from the pod.

I knelt to my knees in awe, shock and wonder, fear consumed by the three. The being seemed robotic and consisted of sleek silver, metal. I gaped at the at the being as he stood straight stood at least 18 ft high and its glowing, bright blue eyes captured my immediate attention.

"Wow." was a whisper that slipped out of my lips as I gazed upon the creature. It suddenly jerked over to where I was sitting and turned to run. Without thinking, I got up and slid down into the crater.

"Wait, wait!, I'm not going to hurt you." I said in a surprisingly calm voice. I stopped and turned to look at me, its head tilted the slightest bit as though confused. I stared up into its bright blue, what looked liked optics for the longest time. It hit me like a brick and I almost collapsed.

"I'm not going to hurt you, but you need to get out of here! There are others that will." I said suddenly. I climbed out of the hole and as if on cue I could see red, blue and white flashing lights approaching. I turned to look for the creature but found my yellow '76 Camaro with black racing stripes, that laid in pieces around us, on the opposite side of the crater.

I heard a voice that came from the direction of the Camaro loud and clear. "Get in!" I sprinted towards the car and slid into the divers seat. The door closed behind me and a seat belt wrapped itself around me. I watch through the rear view mirror the lights disappear into the distance. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding as I relaxed into the leather seat.

"So, tell me, how did you learn English?" I asked as I glanced at the clock that read 10:13.

A slight chuckle came through the speaker system. "The internet." The voice said with a touch of a British/ Australian accent.

I rolled my eyes, "Why am I not surprised?"

"May I ask you a question?" the voice that I could only assume to be male asked.

"Alright, sure." I replied happily.

"You don't seem afraid, are you not surprised?" he asked.

"No, not really. I knew there were other beings out there in the universe. I however, wasn't expecting one to be a giant, animatronic robot! May I ask you a question, well, actually several?"

"Certainly."

"Ok, first, what's your name?" I questioned him.

"Bumblebee, and yours?"

"Erin Aleksandra Ryder, nice color choice by the way." I asked as I giggled a bit. "Anyway where are we going?"

"_I'm_ going to South Gate, California, and taking _you_ home." My face fell a bit at the last part however I felt I hid it well.

"Ah, I see, well I think it would help if you knew where I lived." I replied.

After telling him where I lived, I realized I was taking this all very well. Excitement and other emotions stirred around my head, however once again I was careful not to show them. During the somewhat short ride to my house I had learned that Bumblebee was on a mission to find information on what they called the All-Spark, that landed her thousands of years ago. He, along with the rest of the Autobots, were trying to locate its whereabouts before their enemies, the Decepticons did. I absorbed the information like a thirsty sponge, again surprised with myself, then again I was trained to handle strange, classified, difficult to understand, information.

My house soon came into view and a depressed sigh escaped my lips as I realized this was the end of the road, where I would have to go back to my boring life. Who knew aliens could be so much fun?

"I suggest you leave here as quickly and discreetly as possible." I said as I got out of the car. "Good luck, hopefully you find what..."

"Come with me." He stated as he cut me off in mid-sentence. I stared that the faded yellow Camaro for a second somewhat shocked.

"Wait, what? You barely know me..." I stated.

"Still, you told me about the humans that were coming, for that you have my gratitude."

Erin smiled. "Alright, give me 10 minutes." With that I took off into the house. The military was never going to let me go, not with the information I knew, or the skills I had obtained. I only knew of one way out of it, even then it was possible that they would figure out I wasn't dead. They would warn every other agent that I was a rogue, and send people after me. Except they couldn't come after me if I didn't exist either.

Once inside, I ran into the kitchen and shoved the stove out of the way, and ripped the gas line out of the back. Gas hissed out of the line as took off up stairs. I grabbed my large ruffle bag out from under my bed, it already had a lot of what I needed in it. Two weeks of clothes, shoes, money, medicines, toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner etc. Next I grabbed my laptop, several USB drives, another laptop, and a crude cellphone.

I jumped to the safe that was on the floor in the closet. Pulling it open I grabbed all of my different passports and drivers license's, and another stash of money. My hand hovered over several tactical combat knives for a second before, I threw them in my bag. On my way out the door I grabbed the only important item in the house, a picture of me and my father on my 17th birthday. Carefully, I slide it in with the two laptops, and rushed downstairs.I held my breath as I set the thermostat to turn on in six minutes and set it to 90° F. I smiled as I bolted out the front door.

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